Living in an Undead World
by Phouka83
Summary: The continuing story of Lucas, his family and friends as they struggle to survive and hold onto the little humanity they have left in a world overrun by the undead.
1. Chapter 1: In the Beginning

As Lucas sat and stared at the rotten, broken corpse at his feet he found it hard to believe that just a few short months ago this thing had been truly alive, he had had hopes and dreams, maybe even a family. Yet now there he lay at Lucas's feet, skin grayed and decomposing, yellow sunken eyes void of any sign of humanity, driven only by its need to devour the flesh of the living.

Though he was no different than the countless other undead Lucas had encountered since the zombiegeddon began, he could still remember "popping his cherry" as some in his group had come to call it. It had been just days after the initial reports (only one or two at first, most were being swept under the rug by the government to limit panic) of the outbreak had begun finding their way into the media, many people did not even believe what theywere being told, they chalked it up to people on "bath salts" or just crazed homeless people. It wasn't until nearly seven days after the reports had begun that he finally came face to face with their new reality.

Lucas was making his way to the car after work, having pulled a 9 hour shift answering phones and dealing with ignorant customers, when he heard a moaning sound coming from next to one of the other employee's cars.

"Hey Sid is that you man? You ok?" Lucas called as he made his way over to where the noise was coming from. Looking back at it with all that was going on he had no idea why he had not just turned and ran the other direction.

As he got closer to the car Lucas saw a smear of red on the rear quarter panel leading around to the left side of the car,

"Wh...Who's there?" Still no response other than a faint groan and an odd scrapping sound.

It was about that time that Lucas finally rounded the back of the car and saw what was on the other side.

"Oh my god! Sid are you alright?" He asked as he closed the gap between himself and Sid but as he got just inches from Sid it turned to face him.

What had once been his supervisor was now missing a large chunk out of the side of his neck exposing the muscles and bone beneath, the dark crimson blood dulling the bright blue of his work shirt. Lucas stumbled back, losing his balance and sitting down hard onto the pavement. As Sid's cloudy, lifeless eyes fixed on him as Sid pulled himself to his hands and knees, crawling his way towards Lucas. He managed to rise to his feet and turned to run, suddenly Lucas felt a set of cold clammy fingers wrap around his ankle, tripping him. He rolled to his back just in time to have the monstrosity lunge for his face, hands clawing at the exposed flesh, his jaw snapping mere inches from Lucas's throat.

"What the fuck are you doing!? Get off me!" Lucas screamed as he fought to keep Sid from tearing at his skin.

They struggled on the ground, fighting for his life; Lucas finally managed to roll the two of them over giving him the upper hand as Sid continued to struggle,

"Come on man, snap out of it Sid! It's me Lucas!" Knowing that nothing he said would bring back his friend he realized he had only one choice.

Pinning Sid's arms to the ground with his knees Lucas placed his hands on either side of his head, "Sorry buddy!' and with that he pulled Sid's head from the ground and slammed it back. There was a sickening wet thud as it made contact with the pavement, splattering a halo of thick coagulated blood around them; he continued to snap his jaws and struggle as Lucas raised his head again and again. With one last effort his head hit the ground and Lucas could feel the back of Sid's skull crack and cave and he finally lay still.

But that had been what seemed like years ago, now overrun by the undead the world had changed and so had Lucas...


	2. Chapter 2: A Bump in the Night

"Hey Lucas, let's get fuck out of here man. Too many empties in the area for me." he turned to see Joseph coming through the doorway.

"See what I mean," looking down at the mess at Lucas' s feet he continued "it's not safe to be out here plus it will be dark soon and I sure as hell do not want to be stumbling through the woods at night to get home."

"Yeah it doesn't seem as though we are going to get anything else out of this place anyway let's get the fuck out of here."

Grabbing their packs, they started making their way to the front of the house when all of a sudden they heard a faint scraping sound coming from somewhere above them.

"I thought you checked up stairs?" Lucas whispered as he started to make his way to the foot of the stair case.

"I did, I checked every god damn room and closet. There is no way I missed anything!"

"Well let's make one last sweep just to make sure then we can head back home. The last thing we need is to have someone following us back and taking all out stuff or worse in the middle of the night."

The two of them started up the stairs, making as little noise as possible, when they reached the landing at the top Lucas point to Joseph to search the rooms to the right while he took the rooms to the left. He slowly opened the first door exposing a ransacked closet, taking quick stock of what was inside to make sure it was nothing they needed he closed the door and moved onto the next at the end of the hallway. He repeated the process of slowly opening the door revealing a small, empty room with another smaller door in the back corner.

"I already checked in there." Joseph whispered, jumping the shit out of him.

"Fuck man don't sneak up on me like that, it is a good way to get yourself shanked! Let's just have a quick look then we can head back home."

"I told you I already look in there, it's just full of a bunch of boxes." Joseph replied

Lucas glanced at him "just a quick look then we will get out of here."

They made their way across the room to the door and slowly pulled it open, inside was a small closet filled with boxes of old papers.

"Did you check behind those boxes Joseph?"

"Nope..."

"Well let's move some of these boxes and see what back there." Lucas said looking a little annoyed at Joseph

They quickly and quietly began moving the boxes from the closet and stacking them in the middle of the room. After getting about half of them out Lucas noticed a smaller door built into the back of the closet. He shot Joseph a sideways glance.

"Checked everywhere up here did you bro?" They finished moving the rest of the boxes out and stood looking at the newly discovered door.

"Whatever man let's find out where this thing leads and get this over with" with that Joseph stepped into the closet, drew his hatchet and pushed open the door.

Looking through the door was like starring into a void, it was complete darkness on the other side, Joseph pulled out his flashlight and shown it into the abyss. What lay beyond the door was a narrow, dusty set of stairs leading into an attic, the light reflecting of the floating dust particles made it look as though there were a blizzard raging beyond the door. Lucas and Joseph cautiously made their way up the stair case. At the top it opened up into a large attic spanning the length of the house, the area was littered with old dust covered furniture, empty boxes and old pictures.

"I'll take this side and you take that side and we will meet in the back." Lucas said

With that he headed to the left and began picking his way through the maze of boxes, checking for anything living or undead. Having come up empty he neared the back of the house and began looking for Joseph.

"Lucas over here!" Joseph's harsh whisper came from across the attic.

Making his way to where Joseph stood Lucas wondered what it was that Joseph had discovered and found him standing a few feet away from the emaciated body of a small boy. It looked as though the child had hidden away in the attic when everything went to heck. There were empty cans of soda, bottles of water and old food wrappers strewn around the area along with some blankets and pillows. As they stood looking at the awful scene before them the boys eyes snapped open, Joseph instinctively lashed out with his hatchet, aiming for the middle of the boys skull...


	3. Chapter 3: And Then There Were Three

At the last second the boy somehow managed to move his head just enough to avoid the killing blow, the blade of the hatchet buried itself in the floorboard a fraction of an inch above the boy's skull. As Joseph pulled the blade free from the floor and readied for a second attempt Lucas pulled him back a few steps.

"What the hell are you doing man, let's kill it and get out of here!"

"Look at him, he's no danger to us, he hasn't so much as snapped his jaws at us or tried to reach out for us." with that he moved in closer to get a better look at the frail figure on the floor in front of them.

"Sweet sassy molassy, he's not fucking dead!" Lucas could just barely make out the rising and falling of the boy's chest and the bright green of his eyes as they flickered open and closed as he fought to remain among the living.

"Joseph, go back and grab a bottle of water and some food from my pack."  
Lucas knelt beside the boy and gently took his hand "You're going to be ok kid!"

Joseph came bounding back up the stairs with the bottle in one hand and an MRE in the other, "I can't believe I almost killed him." he said as he knelt beside the boys head, gently lifting it from the floor and placing the bottle to his lips.

The water leaked from the corners of the boy's mouth as he tried to swallow as fast as his parched mouth would let him.

"Slow down buddy, there is plenty more where this came from." Joseph slowly lowered his head to the floor, placing the bottle to the side and opening the MRE.

As he dumped the contents of the MRE onto the floor he continued muttering to himself "How could I have almost killed a little kid..."

"Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades man, you missed and he's alive that's what matters. Now it is going to be dark soon and I don't want to be traveling at night if we don't have to so let's set up here in the attic, get this kid some more food and water and we can get him back home in the morning."

"You're right, I'll get some of this food into him if you want to move some stuff around and lay out our bags. One of us should probably head downstairs and secure the doors just to be safe too."

With that Lucas made his way back through the attic to the stairs and down onto the second floor, his pack was overturned in the middle of the room where Joseph had hurriedly grabbed the supplies. He proceeded down to the first floor locking the front door as he passed and made his way to the back of the house to double check that the backdoor was closed . It was so Lucas made his way back to the attic, making sure to gather up their packs and supplies before securing both the closet door and the door to the attic.

He dropped the packs on the floor as he made his way over to Joseph who was still kneeling at the boys side, "How is he doing?" Lucas asked as he pulled their sleeping bags out and began to unroll them.

"Better, he drank a whole bottle of water and took some of the MRE. He seems to be sleeping comfortably for the moment."

"Good, I locked up downstairs and grabbed all of our stuff. I will take first watch while you get some sleep; I'll get you up in a couple of hours. Sound good?"

"Sounds good." With that Joseph grabbed his bag laid it out next to the boy and closed his eyes.


	4. Chapter 4: The Long Road Home

"Joseph, wake your ass up and let's get a move on." Lucas said as he shook Joseph by the shoulders.

It had thankfully been a quiet, uneventful night and now it was time to pack up and make their way back to camp. It was going to be slow going with having to carry the boy plus they were already overdue and he knew there would be heck to pay from Laura when he got back. As Joseph crawled out of his bag and checked on the boy Lucas rolled up his bag, replaced it in his pack and slung it over his shoulder.

"Get him as ready to travel as you can, I am going to do a sweep of the house to make sure nothing got in during the night and then we will head out."

Joseph still half asleep mumbled something and turned to the boy. Lucas made his way across the attic and down the stairs. Pulling his machete from his belt he slowly and quietly pushed the door open, the room beyond was as they had left it the night before.

He did a sweep of the house and checked the grounds outside, there were a few empties floating around but not so many that they would have any problem either avoiding them or taking them down if they had to. Back in the attic Joseph had gotten everything packed up and wrapped the boy in an old blanket.

"I'll take the first turn carrying him; we should be able to make it a good ways to camp before switching since he weighs next to nothing."

"Alright man, the house is clear and there seem to only be a few empties wondering around outside so it should be easy goings back to camp." With that Joseph gently lifted the boy from the ground and they made their way to the front door.

Lucas pushed the door open just enough to slide his head through the opening and look around, checking the immediate area for any empties. Not seeing any he opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out into the cool Maine morning. Without a word they both began moving as silently as they could to the edge of the woods making for the marker that they had left the previous day so they could find their way back to home.

Lucas paused just long enough to remove the small flag tied to the tree and began pushing through the thick underbrush. They had gone about two miles when they entered a large clearing, not paying close attention to Joseph as he was trying to watch where he put his feet to minimize noise Lucas was abruptly halted as he walked right into Joseph's back.

"What the hell man? Give me some warning next time."

"Get back into the woods, NOW!" was the only response he got from Joseph.  
Looking over Joseph's shoulder Lucas saw what had caused him to stop so suddenly and he quickly back pedaled behind a large pine tree. Spread out in the field that had been empty just 24 hours before were, from his count, about a dozen empties.

"Fuck... we need to get across that clearing to get back to camp."

"This kid is starting to get heavy so let's just make our way around the edge of the clearing and pick up the path on the other side." With that he and Joseph began skirting the edge of the clearing, making sure to remain behind the trees and brush to stay out of sight.

They had made it about halfway around clearing when all hell broke loose. The child that Joseph was carrying suddenly awoke, he began flailing around and screaming, it lasted all of a few seconds and he fell back into unconsciousness but those few agonizing seconds were long enough. As Lucas looked out into the clearing he saw the eyes of every empty in the field looking directly at the three of them as if they were an all you could eat buffet...


	5. Chapter 5: Out of the Frying Pan

What happened next was as if it were pulled from a dream, or to be more accurate a nightmare! With their sunken, clouded eyes fixed upon the three of them, their jaws opening and closing as if they could already taste the flesh in their mouths, the group began to shuffle towards them. Without a word Joseph moved a few yards further back into the underbrush and lifted the boy into the branches of an old red maple tree in hopes to keep him safe and out of the jaws of the undead.

"Well this should be fun..." he said as he came back to Lucas's side. They both knew that they had no choice but to fight, if they ran there was still a chance of leading them back to the camp and with the rest of the group there it was a risk neither of them was willing to take.

"I'll take the left, you take the right and we'll meet back up on the other side, give a shout if you get surrounded and need help. Sound good?" Lucas looked to Joseph who's only response was a slight nod of his head.

The closest of the empties were just breaking into the woods as Joseph and Lucas readied their weapons (Joseph with his hatchet and bat and Lucas with his machete and large tree branch), stepped up to meet them. The first two went down with ease, Lucas's machete making quick work of separating head from torso, while Joseph brought his hatchet down between the others eyes, cleaving its skull neatly in two, after taking care of the immediate threat they stepped out of the woods and into the madness. Lucas quickly moved to the left coming face to decaying face with another empty, its arms out stretched as if to embrace him. He took one step to the side and arched his blade up loping off one arm and sending a shower of thick reddish black blood into the air, unfazed it turned reaching for him with its other arm. Without hesitation Lucas swept the tree branch through its legs dropping it to the ground and drove the end of the branch straight down into its skull.

With a second to spare he glanced across the field to see how Joseph was fairing, he could see three empties on the ground at Joseph's feet and he was advancing towards the next. Seeing that he had his side under control Lucas moved on, taking down two more in quick secession and headed to meet up with Joseph at the opposite end of the field. As he neared the rendezvous point he suddenly felt something close around his ankle, falling hard to the ground. He struggled to roll over as his leg was held firm to the ground, finally managing to pull his leg free Lucas rolled to his back and found himself staring into the gaping jaws of an empty! It lay on the ground pulling itself along on its mangled, bloody arms; from where he lay Lucas could make out a tail of decomposing intestines stretching out behind it where its legs had once been. Lucas began to get to his feet when, with one surprisingly quick lunge Lucas was once again pinned to the ground as the empty slammed into his chest knocking him back and forcing the air from his lungs.

He tried to call out to Joseph for help yet all that escaped his lips was a weak groan as he fought to fill his lungs with air again. The thing clung to Lucas's chest like a leech, clawing its way up his body searching for any exposed skin it could sink its teeth into. Looking around franticly for his machete, he found it laying a few feet away just outside of his reach! Turning his attention back to the empty Lucas could feel its cold, clammy hands find the bare flesh of his neck and it began to dig and scratch at it. Quickly Lucas grabbed its wrists, yanking them free from his throat and inadvertently pulled it further up his body ending up face to face. It began to lower faces napping jaws to his throat, its lips parting to reveal a mouth full of rotten, jagged teeth that wanted nothing more than to tear into and feast upon Lucas's flesh. Releasing its arms Lucas cupped its face and struggled to keep it from seizing a hold of his neck, unable to support its weight as it bared down on him he could feel its teeth pressing into skin around his collar bone...


	6. Chapter 6: The Little Boy Who Could

In that split second Lucas truly believed he would never see another day, never see Laura or their child again, then suddenly its body jerked and fell limp. Heaving the now actually dead undead off from himself Lucas looked up to see the little boy standing over him with an expression of both terror and triumph on his face, Lucas turned and looked at the still figure beside him to see a dismembered arm protruding from the back of its skull.

"Is...is it dead?" Lucas could barely make out the words the young boy spoke over the thumping in his chest.

"Well more like dead again." Joseph replied as he arrived at their side panting from exertion. "You ok?" looking from Lucas to the empty.

Lucas simply nodded, his eyes still fixated on corpse beside him.

Finally pulling his eyes from the empty that had come seconds away from devouring him Lucas turned to Joseph and the boy. Without a word he reached out and pulled the boy to him, into a bear hug. Releasing the boy all Lucas could say was "Thank you!" his mind was still racing with the thoughts of what had almost happened, how in just a split second everything could have changed.

"Are you going to sit there all day gawking at that thing or are we going to get moving and make it home tonight?" Joseph's voice snapped him out of his daze and back into the here and now.

"Your right, let's get going we need to make camp before it gets too dark." Lucas hefted himself onto his feet, taking a second to regain his balance before retrieving his machete.

"Hey kid, what's your name anyway?" Joseph asked as they checked their bags to make sure they were still intact.

"It's Dakota."

Joseph looked over at Dakota with a reassuring smile "And how old are you?"

Dakota jumped up and stood as straight as he could; puffing out his chest a little he replied "I'm eight and a half!"

"Alright" Joseph said with a chuckle "my name is Joseph and that guy you just saved is Lucas, do you think you can walk on your own for a bit or do you need Lucas or me to carry you?"

"I can walk for a bit I think but Mr. Joseph do you have anything to eat or drink, my tummy keeps growling at me?"

Lucas and Joseph laughed as Lucas dug out a bottle of water and an MRE "here you go Dakota, eat up and then we will get moving."  
Twenty minutes later the three of them headed off into the woods following the trail they had left just the day before. They had only made it probably a half mile before Dakota started to slow down, stumbling over branches, barely able to keep his eyes open.

Without breaking stride Joseph stepped up behind Dakota and picked him up, he mumbled something about how he could walk and didn't need to be carried just as his head hit Joseph's shoulder and he fell asleep. The three of them walked in silence for the next six or so miles, thankfully not encountering any more of the undead, before they finally started to recognize some land marks and knew they were almost home.

"Shouldn't be much further now." Lucas whispered as he came up beside Joseph so not to wake up Dakota.

"Looks like we just might make it before sun set."

Just a twenty minutes later they could make out the silhouettes of headstones indicating the old family cemetery that sat at the edge of the field behind their farm house. As they crossed into the cemetery Lucas looked around "At least there are no new graves I can see, that's always a good sign."

As they neared the edge of the woods they could see the soft rays of light filtering through the foliage basking the cemetery in an eerie orange glow. They broke from the cover of the tree to a sight out of an Andrew Wyeth painting. The old red farm house sitting in the middle of an un-mown field, leaves of all colors littering the ground, the autumn sun setting just over the top of the house, smoke gently rising from the chimney and the warm glow of a fire shining through the boarded up downstairs window.

Home Sweet Home!


	7. Chapter 7: Home Sweet Home

They hadn't made it even half way down the hill when the farm house door flew open and slammed against the side of the house. As Lucas looked up he could see his son come bursting thought the doorway, running towards them at full speed. He got to about three steps from me Lucas yelled "Daddy!" and launched himself into the air at him. Quickly dropping his machete he caught him in a bear hug "I missed you too Corey!" he laughed as he held a death grip around Lucas's neck.

"You said that you were going to be back last night, mommy and I were scared you had gotten hurt!"

"I know buddy I'm sorry but we found something in a house that made us have to stay the night but we are home now safe and sound."  
Corey's eyes lit up "What did you find? Is it for me?"

"I guess you could say it is for all of us, but let's get into the house so Joseph and I can show you and everyone else all at once, ok?"

"Ok dad" by that point their little group had closed the rest of the distance to the house and climbed the steps, finally making it home.

Crossing that thresh hold was like stepping into an entirely different world, the warmth of the fire, the smell of a hot meal and the joy on the faces of the others of their return completely stripped away the fear and horrors of the outside world, well that was until Lucas saw the look on Laura's and Brenda's faces as they made their way from the kitchen to greet them.

Brenda was the first to speak or to be more accurate yell "Where the heck have you been? You two said it was just going to be a quick trip to gather supplies and you would be back before dark. We have been worried sick all night and now here you two come waltzing in as if nothing's wrong!"

"I think you better answer that one Muffin." Lucas said to Joseph with a smirk.

"Listen smart ass..." Brenda trailed off, staring at Joseph. All of the commotion of their return had finally woken Dakota who lifted his head from Joseph's shoulders.

"Why is she yelling Mr. Joseph?" Dakota asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"It's ok Dakota she is just upset because Lucas and I were supposed to be back last night but had to stay the night with you."

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to get you in trouble." Dakota replied with a tone of concern in his voice.

Joseph went to lower Dakota to the floor, but he held fast to Joseph's shoulders looking a little uneasy about his new surroundings. The room was now packed, between our making it home and then the yelling it had drawn the attention of everyone in our group. Lucas did a quick headcount, all eleven of them accounted for well now twelve adding in Dakota making him feel a little more at ease knowing nothing had happened while they were out.

Joseph stepped into the middle of the room to address everyone "Everybody I would like to introduce you to Dakota, we found him hiding in an attic of one of the houses we searched. It looked like he had been there for a quite a while and was pretty weak and dehydrated so we stayed the night to give him some food and water before we made the trip back. Sorry if we scared you guys but we couldn't just leave him there."

Corey hopped down from Lucas's arms and walked over to where Joseph stood still holding Dakota, "Hi Dakota, my names Corey."

"Hi" Dakota said shyly still clinging to Joseph

Placing a hand on Corey's shoulder Lucas gently pulled him back as he, Corey and Laura moved out into the kitchen to give everyone a little more room.

"I'm sorry baby, I know that I said we would be back last night but I couldn't just leave the kid, all I kept thinking was what if it was Corey out there all alone?" Lucas said when they were finally away from the crowd.

"Trust me I am still pretty pissed about it but I understand. I would have been more upset if you had come back and told us that you had left him there, plus it will give Corey someone to play with now."

"Why won't he come down and play?" Corey was pouting still looking back into the other room.

"He has been through a lot buddy, give him some time and I am sure the two of you will be best friends. Now head up stairs and let me talk to mom for a second ok?"

"Fine." still dragging his feet he headed out of the room.

"You seem a little shaken up so what else happened out there?"

Looking out into the other room where Dakota had finally allowed Joseph to put him on the ground, Lucas started retelling the events that took place in the field, the empty that had tripped him up and how close he had come to not making it back this time "if it wasn't for that little boy out there I'm not sure I would have made it back in one piece...". He looked back at Laura to see a look of concern and relief on her face.

"Well then I guess I am glad that the two of you spent that extra night out." She replied as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug. They stood for a long time in that embrace, just happy to be in each other's arms and let the madness of the outside world slip away if only for an instant.


	8. Chapter 8: A Good Nights Sleep

Their brief respite was interrupted as Jake and Shirley came into the room chatting excitedly about the new addition to their group. "Sorry, didn't mean to intrude." Jake said as they quickly made their way from the room. Looking into the living room Lucas and Laura could see that the group was breaking up, Dakota still clinging to Joseph as he and Brenda talked excitedly all of her anger momentarily forgotten at the sight of the boy.

"I can't blame everyone for being both excited and nervous, Dakota is the first person we have found in months and everyone still remembers what happened the last time we let a stranger into the group." Laura remarked as she stared blankly out through the boards on the window into the growing darkness.

Of course Laura was referring to John Hilton; he had shown up at their little camp not too long after the shit hit the fan. They were all holed up in a little store on the outskirts of a small town of Newport when they had heard some noise coming from out in the street. It had been John taking out a few empties that had wondered into the area and at that point they were happy to see anyone with a pulse and had invited him into their group. At first he was a real asset to the group he had a lot of wilderness survival knowledge, good with his weapons both for hunting and killing the already dead and not a bad guy to talk to. About three weeks later they had woken up to find John gone along with most of their supplies and weapons and Louis dead, his throat slit while he had been on watch the night before and a note saying "Thanks for the supplies" pinned to his chest with a knife. Since that day they had lost five other people but had managed to avoid running into anyone else's for fear of what this world had turned them into in order to survive.

"Yeah but I am pretty sure that we don't have to worry about that happening with this one but I'll keep an eye on him just in case!" Lucas said with a smile and a wink trying to dissipate some of the tension the memories caused.

Playfully swatting at his head Laura laughed "You don't always have to such a smart ass you know!"

"But isn't that the reason you married me, well that and my stunning good looks." he shot back as he dodged out of the room to avoid getting smacked upside the head.

Lucas was still laughing to himself as he made his way upstairs to the bathroom. He knew that it would only be cold water out of a bucket but he was really looking forward to rinsing off from his trip and relaxing. He got to the bathroom and found the door ajar and it was dark inside so he pushed it the rest of the way open,

"What the hell man, can't you see this room is occupied?"

The voice belonged to Calvin one of their two resident love birds so it was no surprise that when Lucas turned around he saw Calvin and Ashley quickly rearranging their clothes and standing up.

"In the bathroom guys really? So romantic"

Still trying to straighten her shirt Ashley scowled at me "Screw you Lucas."

He laughed and slapped Calvin on the shoulder as he stepped out of the way so they could get out "Looks like someone already has you taken care of Ashley but thanks anyway!"

Finally, Lucas thought to himself as he lit the candles beside the sink he could rinse off and get some sleep. He began stripping off the layers of clothes and caught a whiff of just how badly he smelled it was one of the biggest issues Lucas had with this whole zombie apocalypse thing, no matter how many times he washed something once they got that smell in them there was no getting it out. Tossing his gore covered clothing in the basket in the corner Lucas gingerly dipped his hands into the basin of frigid water. Being as quick and efficient as he could be Lucas scrubbed his body to remove as much grime from himself as he could. After about fifteen minutes he finally felt clean or at least as clean as he was going to get so he tossed his towel in with the rest of the clothing, put on a clean pair of jeans and tee-shirt and headed to their room. He met Laura standing outside their room,

"Hey beautiful how would you like some company in bed tonight?" Lucas whispered as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

She laughed "Slow down mister, you already have some company for tonight." She slowly pushed the door open to reveal Corey lying curled up asleep on the bed with Treasure Island. "He has been waiting since you left the other day to find out what happens between Jim and Long John Silver. I tried to read him some last night but he refused to listen, said he was waiting for daddy to read it."

Lucas couldn't help but smile as he stepped into the room, barely large enough for the two beds that occupied it and the small night stand in between them. He lit the single solitary candle that resided on the table after checking to make sure the window was completely covered, and sat on the bed beside Corey. He gently shook him by the shoulder and said his name; Corey lifted his head and opened his eyes, his face brightening a little when he saw Lucas and he he tried to rub the sleep from his eyes. Corey slid into the middle of the bed to allow both Laura and Lucas to lay on either side of him and handed Lucas the book. He opened it to the spot where they had left off as Corey smuggled up beside him, he was all of three pages into it when he looked over to see Corey's eyes closed and could hear the soft sound of his snoring.

"Looks like someone was tired." Laura whispered as Lucas placed the book on the table and rolled over to face her.

"That makes two of us." Lucas replied as he leaned over their sleeping son and gave Laura a kiss.

"Good night my love." he said as he wrapped my arm around both her and Corey, within seconds he was asleep dreaming of a better tomorrow


End file.
